Penetration effectiveness analysis of hypervelocity weapon warhead and design of concrete shield

With the rapid development of hypervelocity weapons, analyzing the penetration effectiveness of hypervelocity weapon warheads on concrete shield is significant for the design of newly-built protective structures and the safety evaluation of as-built protective structures. Focusing on the penetration performance of AGM-183A hypervelocity weapon warhead against three typical shields: normal strength concrete (NSC), ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) and corundum rubble concrete (CRC), firstly, the reliability of the numerical algorithms, mesh size and material model parameters used in the finite element analysis method was fully validated by comparing the experimental and simulation results of three types of target subjected to penetration of steel/tungsten alloy projectiles. Subsequently, a numerical analysis method for prototype scenario was established based on a mesh transition strategy equivalent to penetration depth and recovered projectile length. Finally, a series of simulations were conducted for the AGM-183A hypervelocity weapon warhead penetrating aforementioned three shields at velocities ranging from 3 to 8 Ma. The results indicate that: (1) the AGM-183A hypervelocity weapon warhead reaches maximum penetration depth when NSC, UHPC and CRC shields subjected to penetration at velocities of 4 Ma, 4 Ma and 3 Ma, respectively, with depths of 4.26 m, 3.74 m and 1 m. Due to instability phenomena of projectiles, such as fractures at the junction between the head and body caused by local stress concentration, further increases in penetration velocity lead to a decrease in penetration effectiveness; (2) compared with the combined penetration and explosion damage depths of conventional sound speed penetrating warheads SDB, WDU-43/B and BLU-109/B, the penetration depths induced by AGM-183A into NSC, UHPC and CRC shields are 3.2, 1.6 and 1.8 times, 4.7, 2.1 and 2.2 times, and 3.4, 1.3 and 1.5 times higher, respectively; (3) the recommended design thicknesses of the three shields against the AGM-183A hypervelocity weapon warhead are 8.01 m, 7.03 m and 1.88 m, respectively. The UHPC shield shows no significant improvement subjected to hypervelocity penetration compared with the NSC shield. Comparatively, the CRC shield is recommended for shield design, which can be effectively subjected to both conventional subsonic and hypervelocity impacts.